Alabama is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 for the second straight season. That is also the ninth time overall, the second most in poll history. The Crimson Tide received 54 of 63 first-place votes. Ohio State is No. 2 with six first-place votes. Defending national champion Georgia is third with three first-place votes. Clemson is No. 4 and Notre Dame rounds out the top five.

FUNSTON, Ga. – Funston Baptist Church believes that everyone is important in God’s economy. They love people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Pastor Ron Shiver has led the church to minister to individuals representing all demographics. That was true in this summer’s Vacation Bible School.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police say a man drove his car into a barricade near the U.S. Capitol and then began firing gunshots in the air before fatally shooting himself. Police say the man didn't seem to be targeting any member of Congress. The incident happened just before 4 a.m. at a vehicle barricade set on Capitol Hill.

CAIRO (AP) — A fire ripped through a packed Coptic Orthodox church during morning services in Egypt’s capital, killing 41 worshippers, including at least 15 children, and injuring 16 others. The church quickly filled with thick black smoke Sunday, and witnesses said several trapped congregants jumped from upper floors to escape. The cause of the blaze in the Martyr Abu Sefein church in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not immediately known.

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plummeted 45 cents over the past three weeks to $4.10 per gallon. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey says Sunday that the continued decline comes as crude oil costs also remain low. The average price at the pump is down a dollar over the past nine weeks, but it’s still 85 cents higher than it was one year ago.

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie's agent says the author is “on the road to recovery” two days after suffering serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York. The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk and joke. Andrew Wylie continued to caution that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be a long process.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan just 12 days after a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered China. China responded to Pelosi's Aug. 2 visit by sending missiles, warships and warplanes into the seas and air around Taiwan. The American Institute in Taiwan said the five-member delegation led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts is in Taiwan on Sunday and Monday as part of a visit to Asia.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s peaceful presidential election saw a brief disruption when riot police responded to scuffles at the national ballot tallying center amid tensions over the close results. Police remained at the center on Sunday. An ally of longtime opposition leader and candidate Raila Odinga announced from the lectern that the tallying center was the “scene of a crime” before calm was restored.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A United Nations-chartered ship loaded with 23,000 metric tons of Ukrainian grain destined for Ethiopia has set sail from a Black Sea port. It's the first shipment of its kind in a World Food Program plan to assist countries facing famine. Ukraine and Russia reached a deal with Turkey on July 22 to restart Black Sea grain deliveries, addressing the major export disruption that has occurred since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the trial is underway for a man accused of fatally shooting a 7-year-old girl who was riding in a car with her family after a day of Christmas shopping in Atlanta. Fulton County prosecutor Pat Dutcher said in his opening statement on Friday that Kennedy Maxie was struck by gunfire after the defendant, Daquan Reed, was robbed of his cellphone and money outside the Phipps Plaza mall in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, picked up a pistol and fired it from the rear passenger seat of a car.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Falcons rookie receiver Drake London, the eighth overall draft pick, was held out of practice after leaving the exhibition opener at Detroit with an injured knee. Coach Arthur Smith indicated Sunday there is no immediate timetable for London’s return to the field and noted that “it's nothing that we’re really concerned about long term."

MIAMI (AP) — Rookie Michael Harris II hit a tying homer in the ninth, William Contreras hit a go-ahead single and the Atlanta Braves rallied to beat the Miami Marlins 3-1 for a sweep of their four-game series. The Braves won their sixth straight after losing four of five against the NL East-leading New York Mets.

Here in Georgia, we are unchanging in our resolve to keep the gospel as our main focus. Resourcing and equipping churches to reach the 8 million lost people in our state is the mission we act upon every single day. That's what's on your heart, and that's what's on our heart, because that's what's on God's heart. This mission is why Georgia Baptists acted quickly to address critical issues over the past few years.

DALLAS (BP) – For Johnnie Bradley, pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church for the past 16 years, the struggles of the pandemic meant increased opportunities to share the Gospel by expanding the church’s longtime outreach to the needy.

COLQUITT, Ga. (AP) — A sheriff in rural southwest Georgia has been arrested on charges of sexual battery and violating his oath of office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it arrested Miller County Sheriff Richard Morgan after the local district attorney asked its agents to look into allegations of sexual misconduct involving the sheriff. The agency said in a news release that the charges stemmed from an incident that took place during a 911 call, but gave no further details.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Court papers show that the FBI recovered documents labeled “top secret” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The papers released Friday indicate the seized records include some that were marked top secret and also “sensitive compartmented information,” a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets and those that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” harm to U.S. interests.

GRANGER, Ind. (AP) — Political leaders honored Republican U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana as a determined advocate for her beliefs during a funeral after she and three other people were killed in a highway crash last week. Numerous members of Congress were among several hundred mourners Thursday at a church near Walorski’s northern Indiana home. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Walorski never had a job, but “a mission," pointing to her work as a Christian missionary in Romania with her husband, as the director of a local humane society and as a television news reporter before entering politics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, the House gave final approval to President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act. Its title raises a tantalizing question: Will the measure actually do what it says? Economic analyses suggest that the answer is likely no.

CETINJE, Montenegro (AP) — Officials in Montenegro say a man went on a shooting rampage in the western city of Cetinje, killing 10 people, including two children, before being shot dead by a passerby. Montenegro's police chief says the 34-year-old gunman first shot and killed two children and their mother who lived as tenants in the attacker's house. He says the man then walked out on the street and randomly shot 13 more people, seven of them fatally. A prosecutor coordinating crime scene investigation tells journalists the gunman was killed by a passerby.

The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a probe of the Southern Baptist Convention that includes multiple national entities, denominational leaders said. “Individually and collectively each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation,” SBC leaders said in a joint statement released late Friday.

ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday the state is investing $240 million in federal COVID relief funds in expanding Georgia’s high-speed internet infrastructure.  

Facing stress is a fact of life. How we manage our stress says a lot about our depth of faith and how much we rely on God each day. When we manage stress effectively, we can find peace in a stressful world.

JONESBORO, Ga. – A 10-year-old American Indian boy who came to faith in Christ last week in Montana has inspired a mission team from Jonesboro’s First Baptist Church with his enthusiasm for reaching others with the gospel. The boy they knew as Billy was one of 33 people who the Jonesboro mission team led to Christ last week at the Fort Belknap reservation. Delaney Gosart dabbed tears during a church gathering Wednesday as she talked about Billy’s contagious enthusiasm for serving “Creator Sets Free,” his tribe’s translation for Jesus.

The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, commonly referred to as Georgia’s Heartbeat Law, was ruled constitutional and was put into full effect by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 20. This legislation outlaws abortions after it is determined that there is a heartbeat. This kind of legislation, even with its exceptions, will save thousands of innocent human lives.

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie has been attacked and apparently stabbed in the neck as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage Friday at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced.